


4, 3, 2, 1

by sillykos (statikos)



Category: Free!
Genre: Established Relationship, MakoHaruRin Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-03-17 02:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3511904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/statikos/pseuds/sillykos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having three boyfriends is a balancing act as it is. It only gets more complicated when the balance has to be maintained over ever-increasing distances.</p><p>[ Written for MakoHaruRin Week. Prompt was: Three + ]</p>
            </blockquote>





	4, 3, 2, 1

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, I'm shocked and appalled that this OT4's tag doesn't show up in the drop box on AO3 yet. As I result I decided to just ultra-tag the pairings making it up in hopes of bringing the Free! fandom to its senses, since this is my favourite polyship like, ever.  
> (To those of you who read Neptune's Moon, please know that the only "endgame" ship to ever cross my mind was this. After the epilogue everything was fine and they all cuddled, okay?)
> 
> All silliness aside, I think this OT4 deserves way more love than it currently gets (i.e. any love AT ALL) so I'm making it my life's mission to start spreading that love. I would have liked to have more time to work on it though (I was really busy in the weeks leading up to MHR Week, and didn't have much time to "prep" anything), so there's a chance I may take this down at some point to revamp it and trim down some of the messy bits.
> 
> It is maybe a little bit Nitori-centric, but I love to write Nitori's POV so I'm not even sorry. \o/ Also, the rating makes it seem like there's naughty bits in this but in truth I just indirectly talked about sex a lot and was trying to be safe, hahaha.

There are four of them, barely crammed onto the surface of Haru’s bed together, and Aiichiro’s woken up too warm, squashed in between Rin’s back and Makoto’s chest, with Haru’s hand flopping over his face.

Not, of course, that this is a bad place to be—in fact he had been very, very content to be there just a few hours before—but now that he feels hot and sticky instead of warm and pliant he’s forced to wriggle out from in between them for air, rubbing his eyes and letting them refocus on the clock.

It’s 1:30. They’ll be taking Rin to the airport in four and a half hours. His bags are waiting downstairs, as if asleep in Haru’s hallway. Aiichiro finds himself hoping against hope that they don’t wake up.

 _Don’t wake up,_ he thinks at the others, when Haru fidgets and lets his arm coil further around Makoto’s chest.Tomorrow night, there will be thousands of miles of sea between them and Rin. Haru’s parents are meeting him in Tokyo the following week to help him get settled, while Makoto has to stay behind a few days more for a family wedding. After that…

Well, at least he won’t be too hot any more, on mornings like these.

 

* * *

 

Rin pretends he doesn’t want them all to kiss him goodbye. He makes a very big point of not bringing it up, so of course it’s not until they’re practically out the door that he starts giving them plaintive looks. Makoto obliges him straight away, kissing his lips and the crest of his forehead, his big hand on the back of his neck. Haru simply stares at first, like an ornery cat, looking as if he has no intention of kissing him at all—but, of course, Rin frowns for all of a second and he goes over to hug him.

Aiichiro doesn’t go to him straight away, not because he doesn’t want to but because he is crying and trying to stop; he feels like if he doesn’t manage now, he’ll never be able to and everything will keep spilling out and over until he’s empty, empty.

“Sorry,” he blubbers, as Rin comes to him instead and hugs him to his chest. “Sorry, Rin-senpai.”

“Come on,” says Rin, kissing his forehead. Aiichiro can feel him smiling against the skin. “You’re braver than this, right?”

“R-right,” he sniffs. “I just… I’m happy for you—I am—I _want_ you to go, but I don’t. What if everything turns different?”

“It _won’t_ be different,” Makoto assures him, assures them all, coming closer and wrapping his arms around both of them. “We’ll video chat and send emails. And Rin will come home for holidays sometimes, right, Rin?”

“Right.” Rin smiles wider, but only because he’s tearing up himself. “Everything will be fine.”

Haru doesn’t join the huddle, all hugs and kisses. He just comes close enough that they can feel his warmth, laying one hand on Rin’s shoulder and the other on Aiichiro’s back. “You’ll be late to the airport, Rin.”

“I—I know. Tch.” Rin pulls back, flashing a smile over his shoulder at them as they head for the door. “Well? Are you coming with me or not?”

 

* * *

 

There’s no more crying at the airport, only a numbness that seems to make it all pass in a blur. And Rin is on a plane, headed far, far away, and the three of them check their watches a bit too often for the next seven hours or so. After that they check their emails too often until finally, nine hours later, a message is sent to all three of them:

_Landed fine… tired though. Will Skype tomorrow._

_Love you._

-          _Rin_

Makoto sees it first on his cellphone and the others peer over his shoulder to read it (Aiichiro has to get on his tiptoes a little bit). They all agree it’s good—and that of course it’s good—and try not to think about Haru leaving, too, a week from today.

They drop Aiichiro off at the train station later that night and he rides back to the dorms alone, feeling very strange.

 

* * *

He had been worried when Rin had talked about Makoto and Haru, too. He had wanted very much to be open minded when Rin had admitted how he’d once felt about them—how he _still_ felt about them—but when something had actually happened he’d felt himself closing off.

To be fair, Haru and Makoto had not actually known Rin was with anyone… but they could have at _least_ asked before they confessed to him (at the same time, no less—since apparently, Makoto thought it would be good for them both to get it out of their systems). Rin had actually called him straight away, while all three of them were sitting there; Aiichiro remembers it perfectly.

“I’ve got something to tell you,” he’d said, awkwardly.

Aiichiro had been finishing off a page of homework and not quite listening. “Um, sure.”

“You know that… thing I told you about?”

“No…?”

“Yes, you do! The _thing_! With Haru and Makoto.”

“Oh. What about it?”

“Well, I’m with them at the moment and they said—”

He’d put down his pencil. Hesitated. “Uh… yes?”

“That they maybe—they might—feel that way, too. About me.”

“O-oh.” His heart had stopped in his chest, or slowed to an imperceptible pulse. “That’s… oh. Okay.”

“I’m _not_ breaking up with you,” Rin had insisted in a way that had made Aiichiro immediately certain that he would do exactly that. “I’m calling so that you know.”

“What are you going to do?” he’d asked. Dreading.

“I—well, nothing, _obviously_ , I’m not that kind of guy. I’m with you.” He’d sounded regretful, for just a second. “I’m with _you_.”

“I-I would understand,” Aiichiro had made himself say. “You don’t _have_ to be with me—”

“No, I do. I _do_.” Rin’s voice had cracked and he’d felt his heartbeat pick up again. “I want to, okay? I mean I want to be with you. Not that—you guys are great and everything—”

Makoto’s voice, further away. “We’ll go, if you like.”

Haru mumbled something like an agreement.

“I could come and meet you,” he’d said, though he’d felt more like crying and maybe throwing something. Rin had said yes, and he’d ridden the train alone just like tonight, feeling as if things might not ever be the same.

 

* * *

“Can you see me now?”

“Rin-senpai, you just turned the camera _off_.”

“Wait a mi—”

The call goes silent. Haru and Makoto stare at the screen in confusion, while Aiichiro perseveres. “Um, I think you turned the microphone off, too.”

A few seconds of silence.

“He’s probably swearing right now,” notes Haru. Rin types, “fuck you” in the IM section.

“Rin, click on the microphone,” says Makoto. “Can you see the microphone?’

There’s a crackle over the speakers and an ornery voice replies, “ _Obviously_.”

It’s strange to hear him and not see him, and even to see him and not _be_ with him. Aiichiro remembers curling up with him on the bottom bunk in his first year and the first time they kissed and how everything had felt brighter somehow, with him there.

Rin has to go to sleep well before they do, since he has his first meet in the morning and it’s two hours later there. Makoto and Haru fall asleep cuddling on the sofa, and Aiichiro starts to feel lonely again.

 

* * *

“We’re sorry,” Makoto had said to him afterwards, privately. “We didn’t mean anything by it.”

“You didn’t mean it?” he’d asked, which had flustered the other boy immediately.

“N-no, no, of course I _meant_ it, and Haru, too—Rin is… well, _you’d_ know, too, wouldn’t you? Rin is—”

“Perfect,” Aiichiro had sighed.

Makoto calmed down enough to laugh softly. “W-well, nobody’s _perfect_ , but some people are pretty close. I’m glad you feel that way about Rin. He deserves to be with someone who appreciates him.”

He hadn’t said anything. Back then he’d honestly thought that Makoto was trying to patronise him; of course, he knows now that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

“We won’t bother you two again.”

“Maybe it was silly to bring it up in the first place. Things are fine the way they are with me and Haru—with you and him. I just thought maybe…” He’d fidgeted, looking strangely small for such a large person. “I’d thought saying it out loud would help.”

“He’s always liked you,” Aiichiro had blurted out. “He’s admired Nanase ever since he was twelve.”

 _He should have been with you,_ he’d found himself thinking, almost in tears again. Makoto had smiled and patted his shoulder. “Maybe, but he’s not going to give you up for us. He told us he’d never do _anything_ behind your back.”

But Aiichiro had heard the guilt in Rin’s voice when the four of them had talked together—the guilt that wouldn’t have been there if he hadn’t wanted this. Of course he wouldn’t go behind his back or do anything disrespectful like that. He’d just feel bad for wishing he could. Makoto and Haru weren’t just bad, boyfriend-stealing people; they were Rin’s best friends, who he’d known for years.

Aiichiro wasn’t a stupid boy who thought he could indulge Rin this one time and expect him to come back, but he also wasn’t a cruel boy who wanted to stop him from following his heart. The only problem was that he had no idea how to let him go and keep him at the same time.

“Could I ask you something?” Makoto had looked timid again, then. “It’s a long shot—and I’d understand if you didn’t want to—what if all four of us went out together some time? It might help smooth things over.”

And it had… just not in the way any of them had expected.

 

* * *

Makoto’s whole family comes to see Haru off at the airport. Aiichiro still has a pinkish mark on his shoulder from “seeing him off” with Makoto this morning, but they don’t know that.

There’s always been an element of distance between him and Haru—and, well, between Haru and most people—but sometimes he feels as if Haru sees him better than most people. They have the “only child” status in common, unlike Makoto and Rin, for one thing. Like Haru, Aiichiro seldom sees his parents and expects very little in the way of their attention. Perhaps that’s why being with Rin and Makoto still throws them for a loop sometimes; whether they realise it or not, both are open and straightforward where they have learned not to be too hopeful. On the rare occasion that they’re alone together, it’s quiet but not awkward, warm but not hot, a comfortable balance between friends and lovers that feels safe, somehow.

He finds himself hugging Haru for much longer than he means to when they finally do say goodbye. Makoto leans a little too heavily against his shoulder in the train on the way back, even with the twins capering around on the seat beside him (“I miss Haru-chan” “I miss him more” “I miss him the _most_ ”).

“It’s all right,” he tells Makoto, before he gets off at his stop. “You’ll see him soon.”

“I know,” says Makoto, “but not you or Rin.”

 

* * *

Aiichiro hadn’t had a clue that Makoto and Haru were interested in him, too, for a very long time.

Perhaps he was not always particularly nice to them during this time, either. He loved that Rin was happy, but could never quite shake the jealousy. He had thought that maybe if he could put up with it for long enough he would become a better person instead of a bitter one.

Makoto had told him one day that he thought he was very special and Aiichiro hadn’t been able to think of a reason he’d lie about that. He had what he wanted—Rin, Haru—whether he flattered him or not, after all. He’d started to relax more when the four of them were together and slowly, slowly, he was being caught up in something that was no longer him and Rin vs. Rin, Haru and Makoto.

It was all of them, and it was easier than he would have ever guessed it might be. So of course, now that he’s used to it, it’s becoming harder and harder to balance.

 

* * *

Makoto’s flight is the same day as the wedding he was supposed to go to. Aiichiro meets him at the airport after his family have dropped him off; he's still in his dress pants and tuxedo shirt.

“Whose wedding was it again?” he asks, while they scan the screen for Makoto’s flight number.

“My cousin. She’s nearly twice my age; we don’t see each other much.”

“Right.”

“Do you ever think—”

“Yes?”

“No, never mind.”

“What?” He cocks his head at him. “Is something wrong?”

Makoto winces a little. “Do you ever think about it? Getting married?”

Aiichiro thinks about it. For a long time, he thinks about it. “I used to, maybe, but… that can’t happen.”

“Not in Japan, maybe,” Makoto concedes, “but there are some countries where it would be okay for two men.”

“There’s four of us, though.”

“I know, I know. It was silly to mention it.” He hesitates. “I still think about it sometimes. Sorry.”

“That’s normal, I think. Don’t be sorry.” Aiichiro’s eyes zero in on a familiar letter-number sequence on the screen, though he almost wishes it hadn’t. He points. “Is that one yours?”

“No, I meant—sorry. You’ll be on your own.” He reaches over to give his hand a quick squeeze. “Take care, okay? Look after Rin’s team.”

Aiichiro smiles shakily. “You’ll see me again in the school holidays, won’t you?”

“I know—yes, I know, but I wanted to just tell you properly that I—that we love you.” Makoto stares down at his feet. “We talked about this, us three. Rin was so worried.”

“Well, he shouldn’t be worried. I’m a captain now. I’ll be responsible.” Saying that makes him smile wider. “We’ll see each other soon! But you have to go, look—”

He points at the screen again and Makoto startles, then leans over to hug him again quickly. “All right, all right. I’ll call you when I land. See you soon, okay?”

“Okay,” says Aiichiro, coming back down onto his heels—Makoto always seems to bring him up onto the balls of his feet when they hug. “Soon.”

 

* * *

Soon is not next week or even next month.

There are emails and glitchy Skype calls, each one further apart if no less loving. Rin trains almost every single day—Haru’s schedule is similar. Makoto has piles of homework. Aiichiro himself spends his final year of highschool trying to divide his time fairly between the team, his times and his tests. After all, if he wants to keep up with the others then he’s got to make _something_ of himself.

Rin is more and more tired when he gets home from practise. Makoto and Haru have less time to spend together, ergo less time to video chat since it’s easiest for them to do it together. Aiichiro wonders if it might have been a little too optimistic to think their relationship could have survived being pulled four ways to begin with, let alone four ways across land and sea, but there’s no “it’s over”, no “we need to talk”—not yet. He starts to wonder when the crunch will come.

 

* * *

It doesn’t. He should have had more faith.

Rin comes home for Christmas and Aiichiro practically flings himself at him the moment he walks out of Arrivals. Makoto and Haru can’t be there until New Year’s; all that means is that he has Rin to himself for a week. A whole week of catching up and just _being_ , which he can appreciate now more than ever before.

He knows that there will only be a couple of weeks in which the four of them will be together, perhaps until this time next year. But he has had a year to decide that if he doesn’t get scouted, he wants to go into athlete management; he could be Rin’s agent, then, and support him that way instead. Rin says he’s already looking at agents. Aiichiro says he’ll just be a better agent than any of them.

When Haru and Makoto arrive back in Iwatobi, too, Aiichiro has the sense that he should feel different, elated somehow, but he doesn’t. He just feels right.

 

* * *

There are four of them, starting to blink sleepily in the morning light. Aiichiro squirms out from between Rin and Haru, and falls into Makoto’s lap instead. He flops there for a moment, then forces himself upright again. Rin is trying to hide his face under the pillow to block out the light.

“Wake up,” he says gently, nudging his shoulder. They’ll be going to the airport in two hours. This time, it doesn’t mean goodbye.

Now it means, “Rin and Haru have an event, and we are going with them”. Now it is another thing they do together rather than something that stretches them apart; though of course, that does happen now and again. Rin still does training programs in Australia in spite of being based in Tokyo now, like Haru. Makoto has a job which doesn’t always allow time off for travelling, and sometimes life simply gets in the way.

Four might sometimes become three, two or even one, but none of that matters on mornings like these.


End file.
